mel101

Does anyone know of a good immigration lawyer in London, England? Specialising in UK-US immigration as well as EU law.

I'm British and my fiance is from the US -we want to get married and live together in the UK. We're trying to work out how he can get over here - I am a British citizen but also a national of another European country so I need to know if my fiance to come to the UK via the EU (opposed to US-UK, i.e. fiance visa, spouse visa) - so I need a lawyer who specialises in UK, US and EU immigration law.

I just want a recommendation so I don't get ripped off and poor advice.

Thanks in advance!

NB: Is OISC any good?

Bob

Search through the US immigration forum, there's plenty of threads recommending a couple of lawyers in London but I can't be bothered to search them out myself right now.

Getting married in the UK is easy, get a fiance visa, follow the requirements to get a marriage license, get married, shout at the home office to get status sorted.

Why are you even concerned about another EU country if you don't plan on living there? It would be doable for a spouse, but a lot of hassle, much easier to get UK status first.

chartreuse

You should be able to find most, if not all, of the info you need here,free and gratis.

mel101

Thanks.

The fiance/spouse visa is hard as it requires that I have my own place and can prove that I can pay rent and have a certain amount of money left after, so that I can support my fiance (as he can't get a job as soon as he arrives, etc). I can't afford my own place and live with family.

that's one of the reasons why I am thinking about doing things via another EU country - as I am also a member of an EEA country I could get married there and then come the UK with my husband - he should then be able to get a residence card (as the spouse of an EEA member). I need to ask if my EEA member status would override my British citizenship in this case.

Bob

More hassle than worth and would still have the similar requirements to bring married spouse into the UK unless he has equivalent status in the other EU country, which would probably have similar requirements.

Mummy in the foothills

You could look arond on www.uk-yankee.com and see what they say too, they are mostly americans who are married/engaged etc to Brits and other EU nationals

meauxna

There was no financial requirement for us in Greece when I got mine.

I vote uk-yankee also.

Bob

Aye, but bringing spouse over to the UK using that, the requirements change depending on how easy that EU country have the requirements to some extent. It would be easier, but not that much easier to move to that country for x amount of time before moving to the UK.

Anyway, the requirements aren't that bad though, place to stay and a bit of money coming in...worth moving to the UK, get a job, then sort out the visa...

meauxna

It does beg the question of how they actually *will* feed, clothe and house themselves. Besides meeting the requirements, this has to happen anyway. If they're going to live with her family, why not just state that?

sleepysnooze

As far as I'm aware, its very easy to bring over a spouse to the UK. You are correct that once someone has a right of residence in a EU country, they are able to live and work unimpeded in any Member State. However, the requirements are pretty similar - the right to have your close family living with you is seen as an "EU right" that is protected by the European Courts, so I imagine that the process and requirements for bringing her over would be very similar no matter what Member State you did it by - so you might as well do it via the UK